The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-02-02
SMELLING ORE.
EXTRACTING PRECIOUS NET
AIS FROM ROCKS.
Visit to the Smelling House In COL
orado-Work of the Crushing
Mills-Melting Processes
Valuable Bricks.

The average tourist in visiting Colora-
do may expect to find in his rambles
about Manitou, in his excursions in the
neighborhood of Denver, or his rides
about Colorado Springs some token OF
the precious metals in the thousand
forms of rocks which he sees cropping
out here, there are everywhere in the
mountains. But he will be disappointed.
To really get at the true inwardness of
gold and silver, where they are, and how
they are brought to light after they are
found, one must 60 to one of the great
smelling houses in Denver, where are the
largest, most complete, and most profita-
Bile establishments of the kind in the
world.
The Argo smelter, mile or more from
Denver, in Colorado, consists of many
stone buildings inclosed in a prison-like
wall, as the precious ore is too valuable
to be exposed to the stray hands of plum
derers.
First, supposing you visitor. you
must procure pass from the Office.
Armed with this, you are allowed to en-
ter. You first discover pile of rocks,
lately unladen from the cars of the (nar-
row-gauge) Denver and Rio Grande rail-
way. These cars have been laden from
far-away mountain mines, at Leadville,
perhaps, or from Ney Mexican mountain
mines, wherever the experienced miner
has found, in his opinion, paying ore.
The lighter and more easily managed
cars of the n!rrow-gauge are able to
reach heights and ascend sleeper grades
than ordinary freight cars. These rocks
give no indication of gold or silver, or
even copper; they seem to be precisely
like any broken stones from any hillside
in Wisconsin. But here they are thrown
into great crushing mills, and with
much noise chewed up into pieces the
size of buckshot. And, by the way,
ninety car loads of rocks are used In this
way every day. This is then piled up in
cono,like heaps, each having single
marked with number thereon. These
piles seem to you simply piles of dirt,
gray, drab, coffee color. or like ashes in
appearance. 1t is hard to realize that
there is million in value before your
eyes. Here the metallurgist takes
small portion from each pile in order to
make an assay to determine the value OF
the ore. To take the average he mixes
the ores in small cups made Of bone-dust
with other chemicals and bakes the mix
ture in ovens. If the miner who owns
the ore wishes to consult another assayer
he is at liberty to do so. When the av-
erage value of his car load of ore is
learned the miner goes to the Office and
is paid for his ore. Here his interest IN
the matter ceases. -,
The crushed ore is then mixed by order
of the metallurgist and burned in order
to get rid of the sulphur. 1t is then in
appearance like coarse black powder.
It is then burned q second time and
again crushed still finer. This is then
put in large reverberatory furnaces, be-
ginning at one end, where there is a
moderate heat, and moved on every four
hours by means of long pokers to the
next oven, until it reaches the last fur
mace, which you will judge to be seven
times heated, as your eyes and throat
will warn you. This is, indeed melt
ing process, the Stag running off as in
blast furnace, and the s'matte," as it is
termed, cooled in cakes something like
pie.iron, black in color, but not nearly
as heavy. :.
This ;smatte" is then crushed and again
roasted, then ground again into fine
black powder.
This powder is then taken up by ele-
vators and put into bath of hot water;
Coming from the sulphurous and heated
air of the ovens, this room seems delight
fully clean and cool. The silver after its
bath runs off into little troughs lined
with zinc. It now looks like oxidized
silver, but is really pure, and is at this
stage of the consistency of mush. The
water has a greenish hue, owing to the
presence of copper held in solution. At
the end of It's journey in the little trougns
every particle of silver is saved. The at
tendant tests the fact by dipping up some
of the water in a glass bottle and drop.
ping minute portion of some chemical
therein. If the water contains silver 1t
is instantly precipitated. This silver
mush is then taken to the drying-room,
where it is thoroughly dried upon large
iron plate over furnace. 1t is now lit
erally silver powder. This powder is
now melted in crucibles, and then, while
in liquid form, poured into molds In
the form of a large brick.
The work of tracing the silver from
the rock to the pure article for one day
is over. There it is--a wall of silver
bricks worth 50, 100! The old man who
did it at the last stage graciously conde-
scends to weigh out some beautiful
specimens of crystalized silver. for which
ba -ooa;vos az enniyalent in United
States coin. You would have no doubt
been pleased to carry away specimens OF
the work in all its stages, but this is not
allowed, no matter how high your sta
tion. But how about gold' It, with
copper (for both of which, besides the
silver. are contained in the same ore), Is
extracted by secret process by the me-
tallurgist, who receives $25, o0O year
for his invention by the proprietor. The
stockholders in the company arc not al
lowed in the gold rooms so rigidly is this
secret kept. This establishment annu-
ally gives to the world $50, 600, 900 In
gold, silver and copper.
This is one process. There are, OF
course, many Others. At Pueblo, Col,
I Iobserved large pile of what is called
silver bullion upon the platform of
smelling house there This is mixture
of siver and lead. 1t is sent to Denver
to be refined. At Golden, in the noun
tains, young men anxious to learn can be
educated in school of mining and en-
gineering, where they can enjoy the prac-
tical application of their studies very
near to Natures heart. Chicago Iri-